1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains generally to wavelength-selective switches (WSS), and more particularly to a 1×N2 WSS that uses a two-dimensional array of input/output fibers whereby the number of output ports are significantly increased.
2. Description of Related Art
Wavelength-selective switches (WSS) that support individual wavelength switching are of great interest for transparent optical networks. Recent advances in WSS technologies have revolutionized optical fiber communication networks. Wavelength-selective switches have received a great deal of attention because their ability to route different wavelength channels independently. For example, Ford et al. proposed the first MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems)-based optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM) using a digital micromirror array (J. E. Ford, V. A. Aksyuk, D. J. Bishop, and J. A. Walker, “Wavelength add-drop switching using tilting micromirrors,” J. Lightwave Technology, vol. 17, p. 904-11, 1999, incorporated herein by reference). The use of MEMS micromirrors offers lower insertion loss and faster speed than liquid-crystal-based OADM (J. S. Patel and Y. Silberberg, “Liquid crystal and grating-based multiple-wavelength cross-connect switch,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., 7, 514-516 (1995), incorporated herein by reference). This OADM is essentially a 1×1 wavelength-selective switch; however, a multiport wavelength-selective switch can be realized by replacing the digital micromirrors with analog micromirrors and expanding the input/output fibers into a linear array. This is a useful network element because it can be used either as a versatile multiport add-drop multiplexer or as a basic building block for N×N wavelength-selective crossconnect (WSXC).
Several 1×N WSS configurations also have been reported. Examples of such configurations as described in D. M. Marom, et al., “Wavelength-selective 1×4 switch for 128 WDM channels at 50 GHz spacing,” 2002 Optical Fiber Communication (OFC) Conference, Postdeadline Papers (FB7), Anaheim, Calif., Mar. 17-24, 2002, FB7, incorporated herein by reference; A. R. Ranalli, B. A. Scott, J. P. Kondis, “Liquid crystal-based wavelength selectable cross-connect,” ECOC 1999, incorporated herein by reference; T. Ducellier, et al., “The MWS 1×4: a high performance wavelength switching building block,” ECOC 2002, incorporated herein by reference; and S. Huang, J. C. Tsai, D. Hah, H, Toshiyoshi, and M. C. Wu, “Open-loop operation of MEMS WDM routers with analog micromirror array,” 2002 IEEE/LEOS Optical MEMS Conf., incorporated herein by reference.
Such switches are basic building blocks for N×N fully non-blocking wavelength-selective optical crossconnect. In current switch designs, however, the port count is limited by optical diffraction. Note that the switches reported to date are generally limited to 1×4, though adding circulators to each port can double the port count.
For example, FIG. 1 schematically illustrates a WDM router 10 implemented with a one-dimensional (1D) analog scanning micromirror array 12. This router can handle multiple spatial and multiple wavelength channels at the same time. The optical beams 14 from input/output fibers are first collimated and then dispersed by a diffraction grating 16. Each wavelength is focused onto a corresponding micromirror 18 in array 12 by a focusing lens 20. The wavelength can be routed independently to any of the fibers by tilting the corresponding micromirror. As can be seen, however, the maximum number of input/output fibers will be limited by optical diffraction for a given number of wavelength channels.
It will be appreciated that larger port count (≧10) WSS configurations are needed for high capacity networks. The present invention satisfies that need, as well as others, and overcomes limitations in current WSS switch designs.